“The only constant is change” This quote is attributed to the Greek philosopher Heraclitus, and it comes from around 500 B.C. More than two millennia later, it still rings true…especially if you work in marketing or recruiting! To kick off 2018, we asked our team at Haley Marketing to look at the big trends going... Continue reading

“The only constant is change”

This quote is attributed to the Greek philosopher Heraclitus, and it comes from around 500 B.C. More than two millennia later, it still rings true…especially if you work in marketing or recruiting!

To kick off 2018, we asked our team at Haley Marketing to look at the big trends going on in the marketing world and share a few insights about what they mean for staffing and recruiting companies. Buckle up…and get ready for lots of ideas to contemplate!

Staffing Website Trends

Mobile – more important than ever. We’ve been talking about mobile for years. But just last month, our clients’ web traffic crossed a big milestone – 51 percent was on mobile. If your website is not fully responsive…and specifically optimized for mobile job seekers, you’re losing candidates.

Kill the long application (or at least move it to step two). In October 2017, one of our clients contacted us about the lack of applications they were receiving from their website. We did some analysis and found they were getting tons of web traffic. The issue was the painful application process their ATS provided. As a solution, we replaced the application form with a simple “submit your resume” form, and in the first month, this company received 8,000 resumes.

Less copy. A visitor to your website has a 3 to 5 second attention span. Want someone to take action? Write less!
Stronger, more prominent calls-to-action. Does every page on your website have a strong call to action? Do your CTAs stand out on the page? Banners, buttons, fly-ins, exit pop-ups and inline CTA images should all be part of your strategy to drive response. If possible, include a CTA “above the fold” in the top section of each page.

Is it a job board or a staffing website? Seventy percent or more of the traffic to a staffing website comes from job seekers. That’s why companies like Adecco and CyberCoders feature “search jobs” front and center on their home pages. They recognize that you need to make as easy as possible for visitors (job seekers) to access the information they want most (jobs!).

SEO Trends

Forget keywords, focus on relevance. Okay, this might be a little strong—keywords still matter, but the most successful staffing websites (from an SEO perspective) focus on creating content that is highly relevant to the needs of their clients and candidates. They provide blogs, videos and other long-format content centered around the questions their clients and candidates ask…and the topics they search on Google. And remember, jobs are highly relevant content.

User experience matters. How fast does your site load? How long do people stay? How many pages do they visit? Websites that are more engaging (i.e., those that get people to stay longer) will out rank those that are not.

Featured snippets and quick answers. Type a question into Google, what do you see? That Quick Answer box is a Google-featured designed to keep people from leaving Google. From an SEO perspective, that answer box is gold because it puts you on the top of page one results. So how do you get into the box? Offer lists, tables, and graphs in response to commonly asked questions. Also, provide content in a Q&A format. That old FAQ page may become more relevant in 2018.

Voice search. “Hey Google, find me a job.” Well, we’re not quite there yet, but voice search and digital search assistants are becoming increasingly important to search results. Does your website offer content that will come up in a voice search?

Link building. Inbound links are one of the most important SEO-ranking factors. if you want to dominate Google, you need more links to your website. How? Write guest posts for blogs in your industry, provide articles to trade associations, conduct market research that others can reference. More inbound links = better SEO!

Structured data. Google wants your website to be more organized! Google looks for structured data markup to analyze and categorize web page content. This is especially critical for job data.Haley Marketing was invited to be part of the Google for Jobs beta program…and our Google for Jobs integration goes live for all our Job Board clients in February 2018.

When you send an email, specifically one to a large group of recipients, there are many possible outcomes. You might get people opening the email, clicking on it, calling you to follow up, or taking other actions. However, one common outcome that causes some confusion is an “email bounce.” What the heck is an email... Continue reading

When you send an email, specifically one to a large group of recipients, there are many possible outcomes. You might get people opening the email, clicking on it, calling you to follow up, or taking other actions. However, one common outcome that causes some confusion is an “email bounce.”

What the heck is an email bounce, anyway?

An email bounce occurs when the email is sent to a correct and valid email address, but does not make it into the inbox. The reason your message might not make it into their inbox includes:

the recipient has their out-of-office message on;

the receipient’s mailbox is full; or

the recipient is unable to receive email from you (have you blacklisted or blocked).

What can you do to ensure your emails don’t bounce?

While some bounces, like the out-of-office, are unavoidable, others can be prevented. To ensure you don’t face a high bounce rate, try:

Letting the recipient know their email address was listed on your bounce report, and asking if they’d still like to receive emails from you.

Sharing with recipients how to whitelist your email address for future mailings.

Sending out the same email to the list of email bounces at a later date.

Want to find out how Haley Marketing Group helps your emails make it to their intended inbox? Learn more about our email marketing programs today!

]]>https://www.haleymarketing.com/2018/02/20/what-is-an-email-bounce/feed/0Why Are You on Social Media?https://www.haleymarketing.com/2018/02/19/business-social-media/
https://www.haleymarketing.com/2018/02/19/business-social-media/#respondMon, 19 Feb 2018 14:34:06 +0000http://www.haleymarketing.com/?p=38541

“Fitting in” is one of those horrible diseases that turn reasonable minds into sheep-gelatin hive minds.” –Alida Nugent, You Don’t Have to Like Me Each of you, as an individual, must pick your own goals. Listen to others, but do not become a blind follower.” –Thurgood Marshall As a business, you may feel pressured to... Continue reading

“Fitting in” is one of those horrible diseases that turn reasonable minds into sheep-gelatin hive minds.”

–Alida Nugent, You Don’t Have to Like Me

Each of you, as an individual, must pick your own goals. Listen to others, but do not become a blind follower.”

–Thurgood Marshall

As a business, you may feel pressured to include social media in your marketing strategy simply because your competitors are doing it. Social media holds great opportunities, but just jumping on the bandwagon without a sold strategy isn’t good use of resources and won’t produce the results you want.

What do all staffing agencies with successful social media strategies have in common? They have SMART goals that define the tactics used in the strategy and are used to measure the success of the program.

What is a SMART goal?

Smart goals are: specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and time-bound. When writing a goal, consider the specific results you are looking to accomplish, how you can measure the goal, where you are starting and what a realistic end point will be in a specific period. For example, “Grow social media followers” fails as a smart goal, because it is not specific or time-bound. However, “Increase Facebook page likes by 100 by June 1, 2018” hits the mark for a SMART goal and allows you to implement specific tactics to achieve this goal by a specific date.

What goals should you use for your social strategy?

Your goals should be associated with your overall marketing strategy and current business needs. If you’re using social media to increase your brand recognition, you may want to consider goals related to increasing social media referral traffic to your website or increasing followers on certain social platforms.

At Haley Marketing, we’ve seen many success stories for businesses using social media with tactics that directly relate to achieving their SMART goals. If you’re not using social media, you may be missing huge opportunities.

Whether you are attending or just wish you could make it to the conference, the Executive Forum is always worth talking about. Join Haley Marketing Group on March 15th to discuss lessons learned, insights gained and plans inspired by the event. This year’s Executive Forum topic is Future Forward; challenges and opportunities for the industry... Continue reading

Whether you are attending or just wish you could make it to the conference, the Executive Forum is always worth talking about. Join Haley Marketing Group on March 15th to discuss lessons learned, insights gained and plans inspired by the event. This year’s Executive Forum topic is Future Forward; challenges and opportunities for the industry in the long term. In this one-hour presentation, we will discuss what we learned at this year’s conference and break our findings down into actionable ideas.

You probably have your own Instagram account, but does your business? It’s time, as more and more candidates (and clients!) are using the tool to get “behind the scenes” information on your company. Grab your phone and your goals and read my tips below! “Sell” as little as possible This sounds counterintuitive to your... Continue reading

You probably have your own Instagram account, but does your business? It’s time, as more and more candidates (and clients!) are using the tool to get “behind the scenes” information on your company. Grab your phone and your goals and read my tips below!

“Sell” as little as possible

This sounds counterintuitive to your business goals, but your Instagram followers don’t want to be bombarded with sales (promotional) messages while they’re scrolling through their feeds. It’s ok to promote a job fair or an open house, but don’t let those messages clog your feed or you’ll quickly lose followers.

The point of using your Instagram account to promote your business is to build brand recognition and show off your workplace culture. While placements can happen, do not expect to see job orders roll in.

Go behind the scenes

The great thing about Instagram is its simplicity. It’s one horizontal feed meant to be seen on mobile. There aren’t any sidebars with ads or distractions like Facebook. Your friends aren’t alerted when you like or comment on a photo. Because of this, users feel like they can get to the heart of a company by peeking into the day to day. Good content for your staffing firm is birthday or anniversary celebrations, community service projects and team-building events.

Use branded images

Professional-looking branded images can make an impact on your feed. When users are scrolling quickly through their feeds, they may not take the time to see the name of a company if it’s not evident in the picture. Haley Marketing offers branded images with your company logo that stand out.

Post when your audience is watching

Instagram Insights tells you exactly when your audience is on Instagram by the day and the hour. You can see by this image that Haley Marketing Group has steady options on Tuesdays.

Avoid these things:

Don’t use images that are blurry or out of focus. Don’t steal images without citing your source. Instagram makes it easy to tag the original poster in your own post by tapping on the image and adding the account name. Be careful not to take images from search engines as you may violate copyright agreements.

For Instagram images or more how-to advice, contact the Social Media Marketing Experts at Haley Marketing Group!

Haley Marketing Group is! This year, five of our team members will be there; David Searns, Brad Smith, Ryan Maher, Brian Vaccaro and Maggie Hinterberger. This year’s theme, “Future Forward,” dovetails nicely with our mission to help staffing firms stand out, stay top-of-mind and sell more. We’re excited about exchanging ideas with staffing industry leaders on how to stay competitive and successful in today’s rapidly changing market.

Haley Marketing Group will be attending this SIA’s Executive Forum again this year. Join us in Miami Beach! The 2018 theme Future Forward, challenges the industry to take a long-range view of how to stay competitive and successful into the future. This year’s events include sessions on a variety of topics. Haley Marketing Group Social Media... Continue reading

Haley Marketing Group will be attending this SIA’s Executive Forum again this year. Join us in Miami Beach! The 2018 theme Future Forward, challenges the industry to take a long-range view of how to stay competitive and successful into the future. This year’s events include sessions on a variety of topics.

Haley Marketing Group Social Media Marketing Advisor, Maggie Hinterberger will be participating in Social Forward in an Age of New Media on Tuesday, February 27, 20184:45 – 5:45 PM. In this session, social media experts share best practices and examples of how they are engaging with audiences and creating a footprint across social media and online networks.

Be sure to attend this roundtable for strategies for keeping up with the constantly changing online landscape.

Haley Marketing Group will be attending the SIA’s Executive Forum again this year. Join us in Miami Beach! The 2018 theme, Future Forward, challenges the industry to take a long-range view of how to stay competitive and successful into the future. This year’s events include sessions on a variety of topics. Haley Marketing Group CEO, David... Continue reading

Haley Marketing Group will be attending the SIA’s Executive Forum again this year. Join us in Miami Beach! The 2018 theme, Future Forward, challenges the industry to take a long-range view of how to stay competitive and successful into the future. This year’s events include sessions on a variety of topics.

Haley Marketing Group CEO, David Searns will be participating in Lightning Round: 28 Rapid-Fire Ideas to Rock Your Staffing Business on Tuesday, February 27, 2018from 11:30 a.m. – 12:30 p.m. This session will focus on quick ideas you can implement right away to rock your business and improve your top- and bottom-line results.

Be sure to attend this roundtable which promises to be both fun and practical.

Especially when it comes to your job postings! Before you conclude that I’ve lost my marbles, hear me out: We all know how tough it is to recruit qualified candidates these days. One of the most effective ways to grab their attention is by listing a competitive pay rate. Here’s why: Job seekers are busy.... Continue reading

Reminding clients of why they’re partnering with you in the first place. Recap the business problem driving their order (e.g., hitting a looming deadline, achieving growth goals, reducing turnover, saving money). Then, connect the dots for them. Associates who are paid fairly are more productive, engaged and reliable. While offering a higher pay rate will raise their bill rate/placement fee slightly, paying a competitive wage will pay off in terms of higher quality talent, better job performance and more.

If you can’t list pay, what else can you do to spark a connection with candidates?

Here are a few other ways to make your job postings stand out:

Include the geographic location. Some staffing professionals may balk at this idea, fearing a competitor will deduce the client, swoop in and steal the business out from under them. But in my opinion, the benefit far outweighs the potential risk. Jobs that include a geographic location are more “discoverable” in job seekers’ online searches. Case in point? Google now offers a location filter so potential candidates can search for jobs within a specified distance.

Promote the client’s culture, employment brand and perks. People work for more than just a paycheck! Describe all the other things that make the employer and the job exceptional.

Ditch the boring laundry list of job duties. Weave those responsibilities into a short narrative featuring a typical day in the position, and its opportunities for growth.

Final Thoughts

Sometimes, providing shareworthy service requires you to shift your thinking – or even respectfully challenge your clients’ thinking. The ways people search for jobs has changed dramatically. Staffing professionals must respond by evolving their job-posting best-practices, patiently educating clients, and making changes that are in everyone’s best interest.

David and Marty Luttrell owners of 32 AtWork Personnel Services franchises join us for our first new episode of 2018. In this episode we’ll discuss: Their most successful growth strategy The challenges that come with working with your brother Outlook for LI staffing in 2018 What advice they would give a younger version of themselves... Continue reading

Listen now or subscribe on your favorite player, and be sure to leave a review!

We look forward to bringing you insights, advice and wisdom from some of the greatest minds in the staffing industry. We hope you enjoy this new staffing podcast! If you have any topics or guests you’d like to see featured in future episodes just email our host at tlewandowski@haleymarketing.com.

Listen now or subscribe on your favorite player, and be sure to leave a review!

We look forward to bringing you insights, advice and wisdom from some of the greatest minds in the staffing industry. We hope you enjoy this new staffing podcast! If you have any topics or guests you’d like to see featured in future episodes just email our host at tlewandowski@haleymarketing.com.